Alternative Strategies to Combat Labor Force Shortages for Third-Party Logistics Providers, 3PLs

3 Ways 3PLs Can Grow & Succeed Amid Unprecedented Labor Shortages

Companies worldwide last year experienced a mass exodus of employees quitting their jobs - be it for greener pastures, better pay, and incentives, greater flexibility, or a new set of priorities driven by the pandemic.

In fact, in its multiyear Future of Work: The Global Talent Crunch series (download PDF), Korn Ferry said to expect a talent shortage of more than 85 million people globally by 2030. If something isn’t done to stem the proverbial bleeding, this lack of manpower could amount to $8.5 billion in unrealized annual revenues.

Amidst the labor shortage challenges resulting from The Great Resignation, recent research found that 73% of third-party logistics providers (3PLs) view acquiring new customers as their biggest priority in 2022. Without the staff, however, doing so will be tough.

So, how can 3PLs overcome these hiring challenges? Here are three alternatives being implemented by leading 3PLs.

Consider Consolidating Warehouses

For years, companies have maintained separate fulfillment channels for retail and e-commerce. But with the rapid growth of e-commerce in recent years, many are finding that these disparate warehouses, combined with supply chain difficulties, are leading to duplicated inventory, and in turn, elevated costs.

By consolidating warehouses and networks, the savvier 3PLs are improving fulfillment by gaining more streamlined visibility into their inventory and reducing costs, both in duplicated inventory and physical space. Consolidation also reduces staffing requirements and retention challenges.

Put Your People First

Employees have the upper hand in today’s tight labor market. Higher pay, a wider range of benefits, and better work-life balance are table stakes in the best-run companies. Randstad Employer Brand Research (PDF) found that 62% of global workers rank salary and benefits as the top motivator for changing jobs, followed by work-life balance at 58%.

As record turnover continues, especially among roles that involve in-person work like shipping, factories, and distribution centers, 3PLs should not only look at providing more competitive wages but also ways to improve employee well-being in the workplace. A job in fulfillment has never held so much potential and the dramatic change in how work is conducted by using autonomous mobile robots and intralogistics smart robots offers candidates a very different future than in today’s aging infrastructure.

Increase Automation in the Factory or Distribution Center

It’s tough meeting modern fulfillment demand with legacy technology and systems, a challenge made even more difficult when good help is progressively harder to find. To meet increased demand, highly fluctuating e-commerce volume, global staffing changes, and rising labor costs, the use of automation is crucial.

Including technology in response to this fast-moving environment can prepare your fulfillment centers to meet today’s rising consumer demands. In addition to bringing modern approaches to your processes and workforce, these technologies ensure your workers are equipped to tackle the peaks and throughs of fulfillment with equal calm. Such technologies increase employee productivity by allowing them to process higher volumes with greater accuracy and at lower risk.

Consider GreyOrange for your 3PL needs

Technology helps to improve worker productivity, this is particularly important when employees are not only hard to find but hard to retain. 3PLs can increase efficiencies and reduce costs by leveraging both hardware and software-based robotic technologies.

GreyOrange provides state-of-the-art robotic orchestration capabilities through its intelligent decision-making platform – called GreyMatter.

GreyMatter learns continuously and as data flows into the system it makes immediate decisions to optimize order fulfillment by directly managing your robotic fleet and providing advanced information to your human workforce.

The platform continuously examines the data moving across the business to optimize workstreams for all workers across the distribution network, maximizing efficiency continuously, in real-time.

The cloud-based platform integrates with all leading robotic fleets and software systems, offering high levels of integration capability.